Whilst portable lifts are well known for lifting small vehicles, such as cars, previous design proposals for a portable lift for large vehicles, such as trucks and buses, however, have not proved viable. To be commercially useful as a portable lift, the lift must of course first be large enough and strong enough, when laid out and ready for use, to accept the large vehicle, and yet the lift must be manageable enough for easy transport from site to site along a highway. As regards dimensions, a portable lift for trucks should provide a working headroom under the bottom of a raised vehicle of about 2 meters, which generally means that the lift should have a powered rise of about 1.5 meters; and the lift should be wide enough and long enough to provide access to a vehicle of 9 or 10 meters wheelbase, and 2.6 meters width. In fact, the width of the access preferably should be closer to about 3.3 meters, to accommodate such things as side mirrors etc on the vehicle. When in the ready-for-the-highway, or transit, condition, the lift itself should be no larger than about 8.5 m long, 2.6 m wide, and 3.3 m high.
Prior to a description of the general features and scope of the invention, an exemplary embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The lift shown in the accompanying drawings and described below is an example of a lift which embodies the invention. It should be noted that the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims, and not necessarily by features of specific embodiments.